encounter before we move to the universal experience available to all. Spiritual
knowing is an inner encounter and a calm inner knowing that we usually
identify with “soul” knowledge. We need this intimate inner knowing because
we can’t be left at the visual level or we will always think we can localize, limit,
or capture God as a private possession (see John 20:29), or as something that can
or must be “proven” to others.
This is no small point. If God is God, then the Divine Presence must
necessarily be everywhere and universally accessible. If you can physically
“touch” God, it’s easy to think God is just here and not there, mine but not
yours.
Obviously, Mary Magdalene’s unique and important role was not ordinarily
acknowledged in the first centuries of almost entirely patriarchal Christianity.
Most still imagined that all of the apostles were male, and therefore priesthood
and ministry should be reserved for men (as if gender were a quality of the True
Self, the restored Self, or the ontological self in God!). This argument is undone,
it seems to me, by Christ appearing first to Mary after the resurrection, and by
his charge for her to be his first witness. Yes, the men ended up getting sent out
into the world, no doubt because only men were taken seriously as safe or legal
witnesses or even religious teachers in most cultures at that time.
It is also worth mentioning that the twelve men are consistently portrayed in
the Gospel accounts as very slow to respond, and usually filled with doubt and
hesitation (Mark 16:11, 13–14) and even resistance, denial, and betrayal, yet
that is not brought up as an impediment to their leadership. But Mary seemed to
recognize Jesus’s new kind of Presence the moment he uttered her name. Those
who recognize the Presence are the most prepared to talk about it with
authority, it seems to me, and not just those who hold a role or an office. But
institutions can only survive structurally, it seems, by defined roles and offices. I
do understand that.
Still, it is not insignificant that it took a woman who first loved Jesus
personally to build the bridge from Jesus to Christ. Mary came to full spiritual
knowing quickly because it was a knowing through love relationship, and
presence itself. Notice that she knew and trusted Jesus’s voice, even when she
couldn’t recognize him. How different that is from our more common empirical
knowing, which limits itself to various kinds of “proof,” to its own form of
reason, and to occasional moments of specific divine revelation. I believe that if
we don’t learn how to send people on inner journeys or love journeys, the
whole religious project will continue to fall apart, because we have no living